In assembly plants for manufacturing vehicles, a great variety of types of conveying devices and overhead conveying devices are employed. Based on the fact that assembly plants are individually adjusted to each type of vehicle to be manufactured and that the conveying devices are correspondingly configured, the overhead conveying devices under consideration are correspondingly individually designed and manufactured. Here, an overhead conveying device of the type at hand relates to those conveying devices below which at least enough free movement space remains to allow a person to freely walk below them. Usually, free headroom of 2.5 m or more is the aim so that forklift trucks or other transport vehicles are also able to cross below the overhead conveying device. Overhead conveying devices of this kind are also employed in order to obtain additional assembly space, wherein, standing on the ground, another conveying device or another kind of assembly plant is arranged underneath the overhead conveying device.
To integrate overhead conveying devices of this kind into a complete assembly plant in a building, it is common in the state of the art to put a supporting framework together from steel girders or the like for erecting the actual conveying device on-site in the building, wherein the struts and pillars are usually welded together. This allows for the best possible adaptation to the conditions at hand both with regard to the assembly plant and with regard to the possibilities of the building, and assembly plants or building facilities already present can in particular be taken into account.
The commonly found practice of putting the supporting framework together on site on the basis of the local conditions leads to structural calculations or a previous detailed construction of the supporting framework of the overhead conveying device usually not being carried out. Due to said calculations of the supporting framework not being carried out, said supporting framework, for safety reasons, is usually designed with a significant oversize (however, without having a guarantee that sufficient safety is given).
However, the design of an overhead conveying device known from the state of the art is particularly disadvantageous in the light of the high amount of time that is required for setting up the corresponding overhead conveying device in the assembly plant. During such setup works, the assembly plant is inevitably unavailable for other purposes in the area of the overhead conveying device to be constructed. In particular when making structural alterations to the assembly plant, switching from one design, for example for manufacturing a particular vehicle model, to a new design of the assembly plant for manufacturing a changed vehicle model, this leads to undesired production downtimes while the overhead conveying device is set up.